1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of treating the anode slimes which are generated during electrolytic copper refining, and more particularly to a method of treating the anode slimes so as to recover the gold content therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Anode slimes which are generated when crude copper is electrolytically refined consist mostly of those impurities originally contained in the copper anode which are insoluble in the electrolyte. Such anode slimes, which will either remain on the copper anode or settle to the bottom of the electrolytic tank, normally contains not only numerous valuable metals, including gold, silver, selenium, tellurium, lead, and metals of the platinum group but copper accompanied.
Various methods for recovering the valuable metals from such slimes are known. These methods utilize the steps of copper and selenium removal, smelting, volatilization, cupellation, silver electrolysis and gold electrolysis in noted order. Since the gold recovery step is usually preceded by other metal recovery steps, each of which needs to take one to five days to complete, the gold recovery step may not be commenced for two to three weeks. And because the gold will have been contained in the matte and slag during the prior smelting step, and also into the litharge of the cupellation step, repeated treatments of these products will be required to recover the gold therefrom, thus lengthening the time period needed to recover all the gold from the initial anode slimes.
It is thus an object of the present invention to eliminate the noted drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a simple, quick and effective method for the recovery of the gold from anode slimes generated during electrolytic copper refining.